Climbing Lessons
by psychodramabeautyfish
Summary: its not my fault you were standing under the tree when i threw the ball to you so go fetch. XD little Gannen climbing a big tree can only end in tears.


Yey! More Gannen and Vancha as kids!

Gannen and Vancha belong to Darren Shan, but I invented their parents and all the other characters.

Note: Vancha is thirteen and Gannen is ten.

Tree Climbing

"Oh Vancha! How're we gonna get it down now?" cried Gannen, staring into the tree where the ball was perched.

Vancha stared up into the branches. "Go get it." He said.

"You go get it! You threw it!" retorted his brother.

"It's not my fault you were standing under the tree when I threw it to you!" said Vancha stubbornly. "Go fetch!"

"You go fetch!"

Vancha sighed theatrically. "Well it's just gonna have to stay up there then."

A few minutes passed and the younger brother eventually cracked with boredom.

"Ok ok I'll go get it…" he mumbled crossly. "Give us a leg up."

Vancha grinned, linking his fingers together so Gannen could stand in them, and then shoving him upwards.

"Whoa not so fast!" shrieked Gannen, nearly getting his skull cracked open on the first few branches.

"Don't be such a baby." Grunted Vancha, panting with the effort of holding his little brother's weight. "You up?"

Gannen hooked his arm around a thick branch and hauled himself up to sit on it. "Yea."

Vancha stared up at him. Gannen giggled.

"What?"

"I can see right up your nose!"

Vancha prodded his left nostril and declared: "Mmm lunch."

Gannen wrinkled his nose. "That's gross!"

"Yea yea. Now hurry up and get the ball down!"

The younger brother stuck his tongue out and began to climb.

It was a very tall tree, but with lots of conveniently placed branches, so it didn't take long for Gannen to get to the right height. The ball was perched at the end of a slim branch protruding from a thick one.

Gannen looked at it doubtfully.

Back on the ground, some of the other children had crowded around the tree to watch. The littler ones watched in awe as Gannen climbed higher and higher, but some of the older ones were concerned.

"What if he falls?" said one of the girls nervously.

"He won't fall." Replied Vancha, before yelling up at Gannen.

"What's the matter?" He yelled. "Why'd you stop?"

"I can't reach it." Gannen replied.

"What?!" Shouted Nathy, a friend of Vancha's.

"I said I can't reach it!" he shouted again.

"It's right there!" Yelled Vancha.

"The branch'll snap!" Gannen shrieked back.

"No it won't!" Vancha screeched. "Hold on to the one above it, then if it does snap - which it won't – you'll have something to hang on to! Come on don't be a baby!"

Well, Gannen couldn't back out. Not with half the village watching him. He looked along the branch again. "Ok…"

Reaching up and grabbing the branch above his head, which ran parallel to the one he was standing on, he began to edge along it towards the ball. It wobbled ominously.

Back on the ground, Vancha squinted up at his little brother, chewing nervously on a fingernail. If Gannen fell now and hurt himself then their mother would kill him...

A gust of wind suddenly made the branches sway and the sun shone straight into Vancha's eyes.

He grunted and shielded his eyes with his hand.

Something thumped down beside him and he peered at it. It was the ball.

The other kids cheered and he was just opening his mouth to shout up at Gannen but there was a sudden shriek and a loud snapping noise, and Vancha dived out of the way just in time as a branch came crashing down where he'd just been standing.

He sat on the grass, momentarily paralyzed, staring wide eyed at the branch, his heart pounding from his narrow escape from having his skull smashed open.

"Vancha!"

Remembering his brother, Vancha looked back up into the tree.

Gannen was hanging onto another branch, his legs and arms hooked around it, but upside down. It was almost comical the way he kept having to spit his hair out of his mouth.

"Vancha!"

"Oh shit…"

"Gannen!" shrieked little Rosa-May, beginning to cry with anguish, she liked Gannen, and followed him around like a puppy.

"How'd'we get him down?" said her elder brother to Vancha.

"We could climb up and get him…" replied Vancha doubtfully.

"Are you nuts? If it didn't hold his weight then we won't get close!"

"Go and get a grown up!" someone suggested.

Vancha hesitated.

"Vancha do something!" Gannen shrieked, clinging to the tree, not able to take his gaze away from the – to his eyes – huge drop to the ground.

_Papa's gonna kill me…_ Thought Vancha.

"Stay there!" He yelled up at Gannen, before racing off up the hill, the others following.

"I can't bloody well go anywhere can I you ing dipstick!" screamed Gannen, using the foulest language he could think of, but Vancha was gone.

For a moment, anger held off his fear, but the branch he was holding onto made a small splintering nose and a small jerk.

"Vancha!" he screamed again, this time from sheer terror.

"Gannen!"

Gannen looked back down at the ground, they were back.

"It's snapping!" he wailed.

"Gannen." Called Nathaniel Harst, characteristically calm. "Are you listening?"

Gannen hugged his branch harder. "Yes Papa."

"I want you to let go."

"But I'll fall!"

"I'll catch you, I promise."

Gannen clutched onto the branch, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Gannen trust me."

Vancha nervously hopped from one foot to the other. What if he missed? What if Gannen went splat on the ground? And got smashed into a million pulpy pieces?

"Gannen."

There was a moment when everything seemed to slow down. All the children held their breath and were quiet, even Rosa-May didn't make a sound.

And then Gannen let go of the branch.

Some of the girls screamed and covered their eyes; even Vancha didn't want to look, cringing and looking away, images of Gannen hitting the ground flashing through his brain.

There was a loud flumping noise, and an 'oof' nose from Nathaniel, and when Vancha looked back, there were no little bloody pulpy pieces of Gannen lying around.

The End.

The voices made me do it. Sorry its so rushed at the end.


End file.
